Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

The Next Great War

Al Qaeda on the march

By Alan
Caruba

In the
July 24 edition of The Wall Street Journal there was a commentary, “Wanted: Converts to Judaism” by the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary,
Arnold M. Eisen. I thought to myself that this was an extraordinary time to be
suggesting conversion to a faith that is literally under attack in Israel and
being attacked by the reemergence of anti-Semitism in Europe. Here in America
we are witnessing the most pro-Islamic and anti-Semitic administration in the
history of nation.

In the
wake of the Holocaust following World War Two what anti-Semitism existed in the
U.S. gave way to an era of good will toward Jews. In Europe open expressions of
anti-Semitism were out of favor. Eisen’s concern is the extensive
inter-marriage between Christians and Jews in which Judaism is often abandoned
in our historically Christian society. The news about Jews in the post-war
years was largely about the nation of Israel and the wars it fought to re-establish
and maintain the Jewish state.

What those
wars should have told us was that Islamic hatred of Judaism extends to
Christianity as well.

For
Americans that lesson was driven home on September 11, 2001, but even the
memory of that event has begun to fade to such an extent that Americans have
twice elected a President who has never hidden his admiration for Islam, whose
father was a Muslim, and who spent part of his youth in the Islamic nation of
Indonesia. In office, his antipathy to Israel has been in stark contrast to the
decades of support for Israel that presidents since Harry Truman have
demonstrated.

A curious
trend has emerged in America that runs counter to its entire history. The
celebratory elements of Christian holy days, particularly Christmas, came under
attack with demands that holiday scenes of crèches and even crosses be removed
from public areas. Being religious was not encouraged and the tradition of
starting the school day with a prayer was banned.

It is not
too far a reach to say that the West, America and Europe, has been abandoning
the depth of faith that distinguished it as church attendance fell off and
resistance to attacks on the practice of religion declined. Home to some of the
most beautiful churches on Earth, those in Europe are too often virtually
empty.

This has
not been the case in the Middle East and parts of Africa where Islam has
awakened from its passive existence due in part to the colonization that
preceded and followed World War One. The riches that oil provided have played a
role and today a nation like Qatar is funding the emergence of ISIS, the
self-declared caliphate calling itself the Islamic State.

Other
oil-rich Middle East nations have supported al Qaeda only to discover that they
were among its targets. ISIS has turned on Muslims in the area between Syria
and into northern Iraq whom they declare hypocrites and apostates. In Mosul,
Christians have been told to convert, pay a tax, or die.

While the
rockets that have rained down on Israel are dramatic, the attacks on Christians
throughout the Middle East have received less attention, but Christian Arabs
have been driven from their homelands in the same way the establishment of
Israel saw Jews forced to abandon homes in which they had lived for generations.

While
Americans, joined by European negotiators, attempt to get Iran to abandon its
nuclear weapons program, they remain blind to the role Iran has played for
decades, using Hezbollah and Hamas, two Palestinian terrorist organizations, to
wage war on Israel and, by extension, the U.S. Not a day goes by without the
calls, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” There is only one way to end
Iran’s nuclear program and that is to destroy the facilities that enrich
uranium and plutonium. At some point, it will come to that because it must.

Israel is
making it clear to the world that there is only one way to rid itself of Hamas and
that is a military operation. Its troops are finding an astounding matrix of
tunnels whose only purpose is to attack it.

Utterly
devoid of any moral standards, Hamas uses homes, schools and hospitals to hide
its arsenal of rockets and Palestinian civilians are forced to act as human
shields. The world’s media focuses on the deaths of their men, women, and
children, but little notice of the rockets and missiles that continue to be
fired at Israel. Meanwhile Hamas has been abandoned by Egypt and most other
Middle Eastern nations other than Iran and Turkey.

The
so-called Palestinians have been led by men like the late Yassir Arafat and
currently by Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah. Abbas has
recently moved his family to a home in Jordan in the face of criticism that he
has been too “cooperative” with Israel. On Quds Day last week, an event
organized throughout the Middle East by Iran, an estimated 10,000 protesters
gathered in the West Bank to protest Israel’s control of Jerusalem, a holy city
to Jews and Christians, claimed as well by Islam. It was founded by King David.

Even so,
the European business sector was quick to engage with Iran following the news
of the negotiations which have been extended and which have granted Iran
billions in return for sitting at the table to discuss an end to the nuclear
program that it will never abandon.

In 1913,
no one in Europe or America would have ever predicted the beginning of World
War One in 1914. It began on July 28, 1914. As the historian Charles Emmerson
said of the unanticipated war, “Humanity looked into the abyss and peering into
the depths, found its own dark, disfigured reflection staring back.”

In 2014, a
century later, humanity needs to take a look at the fascistic, utterly immoral
objectives and practices of Islam, and understand that it is at war with us,
with moderate Muslims, and with all other faiths. It’s not “if” we shall have
to deal with it militarily as Israel is doing, but “when.” That day is not far
off.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.